Essay on E Commerce: Even today, some considerable time after the so called ‘Internet revolution’, Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) remains a relatively new, emerging and constantly changing area of business management and information technology. Speaking in layman’s terms, E-Commerce refers to the entire process of marketing, selling, delivering goods and servicing customers over the Internet. It has revolutionized the way companies do business. Consumers can buy almost anything online 24 hours a day.
Long and Short Essays on E Commerce for Kids and Students in English
Given below are two essays in English for students and children about the topic of ‘E Commerce’ in both long and short form. The first essay is a long essay on E Commerce of 400-500 words. This long essay about E Commerce is suitable for students of class 7, 8, 9 and 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants. The second essay is a short essay on E Commerce of 150-200 words. These are suitable for students and children in class 6 and below.
Long Essay on E Commerce 500 Words in English
Below we have given a long essay on E Commerce of 500 words is helpful for classes 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Competitive Exam Aspirants. This long essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 7 to class 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants.
In the 21st century, the rapid development of information technology and the rapid increase in information exchange have brought new drives and innovative ideas to the whole society. The wide adoption of information technology by the community has led to great changes. These changes are not simply in the context of data processing or computing. They are changes which affect how we communicate with each other, how we organise our daily activities, how we educate the younger generation, and how we run business. The great development and acceptance of information technology, computer network and Internet have transformed the mode of operation of many businesses, and at the same time have brought along unprecedented business opportunities. Businesses are now able to conduct transactions across geographical boundaries, across time zones and at a high efficiency. E-Commerce has become the market trend of the Century.
Life has become very busy these days. Odd working hours, hectic schedules and time constraints have changed how people shop these days. Hence, E-Commerce has become the preferred method of shopping for many people. They love the ease with which they can shop online from their home at any time of the day or night. Purchasing options are quick and convenient with the ability to transfer funds online. Consumers save time and money by searching for items and making their purchases online. It can take several days of physically going from location to location, costing time and fuel, to purchase a hard-to-find item. Moreover, E-Commerce is an efficient retail method for business transactions. Start-up costs for establishing an E-Commerce business is far less than expanding your business with more brick and mortar locations. Fewer licenses and permits are required to start an online business than that of a physical store location. You will also save money by using fewer employees to perform operations such as managing inventory and billing customers. You won’t have to search for an appropriate geographic location or worry about paying high utility costs for the facility.
Advertising done well on the web can get even a small firm’s promotional message out to potential consumers in every country in the world. A firm can use electronic commerce to reach narrow market segments that are geographically scattered. The web is particularly useful in creating virtual communities that become ideal target markets for specific types of products or services.
Short Essay on E Commerce 200 Words in English
Below we have given a short essay on E Commerce is for Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. This short essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 6 and below.
Then there is the issue of inability to feel the product physically or check it with your own hands while buying. When making a purchase at a brick and mortar business, you get the product when you pay for it. On the web, there may be a time lag from purchase to actually being able to consume. The consumer will have to wait for delivery of physical goods.
Also, some businesses are less suitable for electronic commerce. Such businesses may be involved in the selling of items which are perishable or high-cost, or which require inspection before purchasing. Most of the disadvantages of electronic commerce today, however, stem from the newness and rapidly developing pace of the underlying technologies. These disadvantages will disappear as electronic commerce matures and becomes more available to and accepted by the general population.
Not only the new generation, but also the older generation is getting a hold of technology. They are adapting to the changing technologies and try to be up-to-date. Therefore, E-Commerce is also making its way into their lives. It is true that going to markets or malls to shop will never go out of fashion but E-Commerce is also here to stay and become more advantages and get comfortable with it.
E Commerce Essay Word Meanings for Simple Understanding
- Layman – normal person
- Innovative – creative
- Acceptance – approval
- Unprecedented – changed
- Exceptional – exceptional/unmatched
- Mortar – cement
- Potential – possible
- Scattered – spread
- Embrace – adopt
- Perishable – liable to decay
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Headless Commerce
Discover how headless commerce is helping companies future proof their businesses.
The ecommerce industry is always changing and this year has been no different. More than ever, merchants are creating and/or improving their ecommerce businesses to meet customers where they are. While it may seem like everything in ecommerce is evolving, we narrowed it down to the biggest trends that will affect businesses in the coming months and years.
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14 Ecommerce Trends Leading the Way
- AR enhances the reality of online shopping.
- There will be a growing volume of voice search.
- On-site personalization uses those insights to create individualized experiences.
- Big data plays a big part in creating personalized experiences.
- Chatbots improve the shopping experience.
- Mobile shopping is still on the move.
- More ways to pay.
- Headless and API-driven ecommerce allow continued innovation.
- Customers respond to video.
- Subscriptions keep customers coming back.
- Sustainability is becoming more important.
- Businesses should optimize digital strategy for conversion.
Augmented reality enhances the reality of online shopping.
Augmented reality (AR) has been a complete game changer for ecommerce. With this type of technology, shoppers can truly see the item they’re shopping for, which helps them make a buying decision. AR really changes the shopping experience in specific industries, such as fashion and home decor because the customer can get a better feel for the item without seeing it in-person.
In 2019, Gartner predicted that 100 million consumers will shop using AR by 2020, so it will be interesting to see how that shakes out next year.
Michael Prusich, Director of Business Development at 1Digital Agency, agrees with this prediction:
Tessa Wuertz, Director of Marketing & Partnerships, efelle.com, also sees the potential for even smaller to midmarket businesses joining the trend:
“We are expecting a lot more businesses to utilize AR for their products and businesses — so much so that it will become more standard in ecommerce and social media platforms. We’re seeing it put to use with larger companies, but I think we’re soon going to start seeing it become mainstream for businesses of all sizes.”
There will be a growing volume of voice search.
Not only do more people own smart speakers, but they also rely on voice assistants to complete daily tasks. Loop Ventures forecasts that 75% of U.S. households will own a smart speaker by 2025.
As more homes adopt smart speakers, more consumers will utilize voice search to shop online, order food and organize their lives. The rise of voice search creates an opportunity for ecommerce businesses in terms of keywords and content.
David Zimmerman, Director of eCommerce Solutions, Kensium, included “more involvement of voice-enabled solutions in the commerce space with Amazon Alexa and Google Home” high on his list of 2020 trends to keep an eye on.
AI helps shops learn about shoppers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning make it possible for the customer to have automated, personalized shopping experiences. AI is continuously collecting data on how a customer shops, when they buy purchases and what they’re looking for in a product or a service. It’s a piece of technology that really can’t be replicated in-store.
Ron Smith, Editor in Chief, The Digital Outdoor, emphasizes how the complexity of AI and the ability to make it more human is also increasingly important:
“People want to know that brands care about them, and AI will be programmed accordingly. We have currently seen the opposite behavior on social media, where AIs learn from humans’ more negative remarks, but it’s highly likely that consumers will crave the impact. If bots can learn how to form sentences to convey an emotion, companies can soon teach them to offer comfort and products based on customers’ moods.”
On-site personalization uses those insights to create individualized experiences.
Buyers of all sorts — including B2C and B2B — are looking for personalized, custom shopping experiences online. The data collected from AI is what makes it possible for a buyer to get personalized product recommendations and detailed customer service.
Implementing personalized experiences on-site or in marketing efforts has been shown to have a strong effect on revenue, with one study finding it had a 25% revenue lift for retailers scaling advanced personalization capabilities.
For further context, this accounted for 19% of participating companies while retailers that were «building basic personalization capabilities» achieved «a revenue lift of 10% or more; the retailers in this tier account for 40% of the participating companies.
Kaleigh Moore, freelance writer and ecommerce specialist, sees AI-powered personalization becoming increasingly relevant in 2020:
“As brands harness and leverage more data, they’ll be able to create incredibly relevant experiences for shoppers that feel tailor-made.”
Big data plays a role in creating personalized experiences.
Today, many consumers are more aware that ecommerce sites are collecting personal data, which puts them at risk. Because of this, experts have mixed feelings about the benefits of big data and how it affects the personalized shopping experience.
Luis Catter, Conversion Rate Optimization Expert at Kensium Solutions, has his own predictions for how personalization will continue to evolve alongside data concerns:
Chatbots improve shopping experiences.
Chatbots interact with online shoppers much like an in-store sales associate would do. Today’s shopper wants to be able to find and buy a product in just a few clicks, and if they can’t, they get frustrated. This is where a chatbot can step in and save the sale.
Experts predict that 80% of businesses will be using chatbots in 2020.
Shane Barker, Founder and CEO of ecommerce thought leadership blog shanebarker.com/blog posits:
“Chatbots are all the rage today for customer support. However, I think they’ll drastically change the way people shop online. They’ll become one of the most important marketing tools. In the retail space, self-checkout kiosks will probably become the norm and in-store marketing will increase.”
Duran Inci, CEO of Optimum7, sees chatbots becoming increasingly personalized to improve the customer experience:
“The same way chatbots are becoming more intuitive, so do I think that personal shopping assistant bots online will become more prevalent, using previous data to help anticipate new products that you’ll like. Similar to Amazon’s suggestions for similar products.”
Mobile shopping is still on the move.
In 2019, Statista estimated that by the end of 2021, 73% of ecommerce sales will take place on a mobile device.
More ways to pay.
Customers have individual needs when it comes to payment methods, but they might cancel a potential sale if they can’t pay how they want on an ecommerce website. Offering a wide variety of ways to pay is a good way to increase conversion rates on mobile devices. Plus, if customers can save their payment information on your site, they’ll be able to checkout even faster the next time they make a purchase.
Joe Chilson, Head Writer and Account Manager, 1Digital Agency sees centralization of payments also making strides in 2020:
“Think about how easy it would be to buy a product on any website if, at checkout, you could simply give them an ID unique to you. This unique ID would be for a centralized wallet service that would securely store all your payment info, shipping and billing addresses, preferences, etc. Companies like Apple and PayPal have taken shots at this in the past, but I think it could become more normalized.”
Headless and API-driven ecommerce allow continued innovation.
Headless commerce is a solution that allows an online store’s ecommerce platform to be completely decoupled from the frontend presentation layer.
More ecommerce businesses are adopting headless because of its flexibility on the backend, plus the added SEO, content marketing and digital experience capabilities.
LARQ Ecommerce Architect Antonio Kaleb explains: “With headless, we get more control over our content and customer journey through checkout. We had a multi-region need that was solved for with the headless BigCommerce solution, allowing us to combine all of our stores into one single domain, for which we have developed additional features.”
Customers respond to video.
Video proved to be a great way to engage customers in 2019, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Creating videos for your website is a great way to instantly grab and engage a customer and inform them about your product or service.
Ron Smith, Editor in Chief, The Digital Outdoor considers how video can be used to help educate customers:
Shane Barker further emphasizes the importance:
“The importance of videos can’t be understated. Videos can help you explain and showcase your products better than images ever can. You should consider adding videos of your products in your ecommerce store.”
Subscriptions keep customers coming back.
There are subscriptions of all sorts these days and their convenience is attractive for consumers. For companies, subscription services create a way to plan for inventory and sales that are already locked in.
David Zimmerman, Director of eCommerce Solutions, Kensium still predicts that “more companies will offer subscription services or monthly payment options for larger purchases” in the coming year.
Sustainability is becoming more important.
Consumers and businesses alike are becoming more aware of the environment. Because of this, consumers are being more conscious about where they shop and the impact it has on the environment and related effects.
One survey found that 50% of respondents wanted more sustainability in the fashion industry, and 75% wanted to see less packaging.
Many businesses are finding ways to be more eco-friendly by going paperless when possible, using biodegradable packaging, and using recyclable supplies.
Businesses should optimize digital strategy for conversion.
Scott Ginsberg, Head of Content, Metric Digital adds:
If you were ever worried that B2B would go out of style, fear not. Global retail ecommerce sales for B2B are expected to reach $1.1 trillion in 2021, according to data from Statista.
Forrester predicts that by 2020 almost half of all adults will be Millennials, which also means an increase in Millennial B2B buyers. Both of these audiences want to be able to easily research their needs and related products without conversing with salespeople.
B2B ecommerce brands are working to meet these needs. Connie Wong, Marketing Manager, Silk Software, talks about this transition:
“The days of orders needing to be placed through fax order forms or phone calls only are shrinking. More and more businesses are beginning to see the value in servicing their customers online. By automating these tasks through their ecommerce site, teams are moving away from spending the bulk of their time on processing order entries from email spreadsheets or hard copy forms. Instead, they are shifting their focus towards what matters most: engaging with customers, providing them with an excellent customer experience, and establishing ongoing client relationships.”
Deciding if a Trend Makes Sense for Your Business
Not every trend is worth jumping on, but which one deserves your time and effort? While some will provide a huge value-add, others might be out of touch with your particular audience or might be too costly to implement for your business to maintain a reasonable ROI.
Knowing what trends will be a good fit for you will often come down to knowing your own customers, vertical, and competitors backwards and forwards. There’s several things you can do to evaluate industry trends and make the right move for your B2B.
Keep track of industry influencers and publications.
Use customer data to evaluate if a trend is right for you. What do the numbers show? Many trends might work for other businesses, but you know your customers best. Consider utilizing more than one data gathering tool so you can see customer trends from different sources. Use these numbers to see the overall trends in your business. Would adopting a new trend interrupt your customer behavior?
Get feedback from your customers.
Don’t be afraid to ask current customers what they need. Getting feedback from current customers can give you insight into trends, and you can create more specific plans for the future. You never know, a customer might even suggest an idea you hadn’t thought of yet.
Observe your competitors.
Take a look at your competitors. Did they jump on a specific trend? If so, how did it work for them? Of course, you don’t have to do everything your competition is doing, but being aware is another way to measure a trend.
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Conclusion
Okay, so there’s a lot of new things happening in ecommerce. Technology and people are always evolving, and since ecommerce brings it all together, we are always going to be looking toward the future. One thing is for sure, is that it’s never too late to jump right in, learn something new, and evaluate if it’s right for your business. For now, consumers are in the driver’s seats and ecommerce businesses will be customizing the journey ahead for them.
What is the future of ecommerce?
The future of ecommerce frequently changes. As we look ahead to the end of 2020 and into 2021, industry experts helped us outline the trends for the future of ecommerce:
Is ecommerce growing?
Yes, ecommerce is growing. Consumers of all sorts expect to be able to browse and make purchases online. Because of this, many businesses are jumping online and creating storefronts to compete for sales. In today’s world, shoppers who may not have shopped online were forced to when brick-and-mortar stores closed and/or only offered buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) options.
Is omnichannel a new ecommerce trend?
Omnichannel means retailers diversifying their strategy by selling on different channels. This can include both offline and online channels. This approach to commerce not only offers these different options for customer interaction but also focuses on integrating them so that customers have a cohesive experience across all the different touchpoints. Selling on multiple channels is not new, but omnichannel is a growing trend in terms of focusing on a holistic approach to the overall experience.
Innovative ecommerce businesses have transformed the way we shop today and redefined what is possible.
In 2013, ecommerce made up 6% of retail sales in the U.S., and by 2025, experts predict that ecommerce sales will make up nearly 22% of total purchases in the United States.
Ecommerce is a business model that allows businesses and consumers to make purchases or sell things online. There are many different types of ecommerce business models to choose from, and today it’s easier than ever for creative founders to use them to make their ideas a reality.
If you want to innovate and defy expectations — if you’re going to separate your business from all of the others online — you’ll need to know what business model works best for you and how you can leverage that into greater success.
The Most Common Types of Ecommerce Business Models
If you’re starting an ecommerce business, odds are you’ll fall into at least one of these four general categories. Each has its benefits and challenges, and many companies simultaneously operate in several.
Knowing what bucket your idea fits in can help you think creatively about what your opportunities and threats might be.
No matter your growth stage or business model, BigCommerce can position your business for its maximum potential. If you’re interested in learning more, contact sales to request a demo.
B2C (Business-to-consumer).
The decision-making process for a B2C purchase is much shorter than a business-to-business (B2B) purchase, especially for lower-value items. Because of this shorter sales cycle, B2C businesses typically spend less marketing dollars to make a sale while having a lower average order value and fewer recurring orders than their B2B counterparts.
B2C includes both products and services as well. B2C innovators have leveraged technology like mobile apps, native advertising and remarketing to market directly to their customers and make their lives easier.
B2B (Business-to-business).
Recent B2B innovators have made a place for themselves by replacing catalogs and order sheets with ecommerce storefronts and improved targeting in niche markets.
In 2021, 60% of B2B buyers were millennials — nearly double the amount from 2012. As younger generations enter the age of making business transactions, B2B selling in the online space is becoming more important.
B2B2C (Business-to-business-to-consumer).
B2B2C stands for Business-to-Business-to-Consumer. It is a business model where a company sells its product or service in partnership with another organization to an end customer.
Unlike when you white label a product — where a company rebrands an item to present it as its own — the end customer understands that they are buying a product or using a service from the original company
B2G (Business-to-government).
This model relies on the successful bidding of government contracts. A government agency will typically put up a request for proposal (RFP) and ecommerce businesses will have to bid on these projects.
While a more secure business model, B2G differs from other businesses or consumers. The bureaucratic nature of government agencies often leads to a much more glacial pace, which can limit potential revenue streams.
C2B (Consumer-to-business).
C2B businesses allow individuals to sell goods and services to companies. In this ecommerce model, a site might enable customers to post the work they want to be completed and have businesses bid for the opportunity. Affiliate marketing services would also be considered C2B.
The C2B ecommerce model’s competitive edge is in pricing for goods and services. This approach gives consumers the power to name their prices or have businesses directly compete to meet their needs.
Recent innovators have used this model creatively to connect companies to social media influencers to market their products.
D2C (Direct-to-consumer).
A direct-to-consumer business sells its own product directly to its end customers, without the help of third-party wholesalers or online retailers.
As opposed to other business models such as B2B2C, there is no middle man between the consumer and a business.
C2C (Consumer-to-consumer).
C2C ecommerce businesses — sometimes referred to as online marketplaces — connect consumers to exchange goods and services and typically make their money by charging transaction or listing fees.
C2C businesses benefit from self-propelled growth by motivated buyers and sellers, but face a key challenge in quality control and technology maintenance.
Online businesses like Craigslist, Walmart, Alibaba and eBay pioneered this model in the early days of the internet.
Value Delivery Methods for Ecommerce Innovation
A value delivery method is how a product is designed in order to bring the most value to customers who are using it. If your business model is the car, your value delivery method is the engine.
Here are some of the most popular delivery methods taken by industry leaders and market disruptors:
White label.
White labeling is when a company brands and sells a product under its own name and logo, but it is manufactured or purchased from a third-party distributor. This can help boost brand visibility while minimizing manufacturing costs.
White labeling is popular within heavily reproduced industries such as fashion and cosmetics.
Private label.
A private label product is one that a retailer gets produced by a third party but sells under its own brand name. The retailer controls everything about the product or products. That includes the product’s specs, how it’s packaged and everything else besides.
Private label products are then delivered to the retailer to sell. As far as consumers are concerned, they’re the company’s ‘own brand’ products.
Wholesaling.
Wholesale ecommerce is a B2B ecommerce model where, instead of selling your products individually to consumers, you sell them in bulk and at a discount to other businesses — essentially as the intermediary between the manufacturer and the distributor or retailer.
In a wholesaling approach, a retailer will typically offer its products at a significant discount.
Dropshipping.
One of the fastest-growing methods of ecommerce is dropshipping.
Subscription service.
As early as the 1600s, publishing companies in England used a subscription model to deliver books monthly to their loyal customers.
With ecommerce, businesses are going beyond periodicals and fruit-of-the-month clubs. Today, virtually every industry has seen the arrival of subscription services to bring convenience and savings to customers.
Selecting Your Ecommerce Business Model
As seen above, there are several different types of ecommerce business models and value delivery methods to choose from. Deciding on a business model can be difficult, so here are a few questions that can help you create a business plan that will set your company apart:
What are you selling?
An advantage of the online marketplace is that there will always be a market for what you want to sell — you just need to know exactly what that is.
Before a business can take off, you need to understand what is currently being sold online and what you are interested in tapping into.
Physical Products
Physical products are the most commonly sold commodity on ecommerce stores and often achieve the highest sales.
From car parts to novels to electronics and gadgets, your entry into the online market won’t be difficult if you know what product you want to build.
Digital Goods
As the world moves further into a digital marketplace, selling digital goods and products has never been easier.
Services
Another result of the broader move into the digital marketplace is how much easier selling services has become.
Before online marketplaces, selling services typically occurred through newspaper ads or word of mouth. Now, service-based businesses can create their own websites to market themself.
Who is your customer?
Who are you looking to serve?
Consider the expectations of your customers when purchasing the type of new product you plan to sell. You’re most likely to succeed if you understand their behaviors and habits and find ways to improve them or save money.
To accomplish this, you’ll need to look for pain points in how things are currently done at your company. This is an opportunity for innovators to carve out a space to improve customer relations and overall satisfaction.
What are you capable of?
What do you know better than anyone else?
Build around your existing strengths and the pieces that are energizing to you. Be realistic about what elements you can do yourself and what you will need to find help for.
Uncovering your limitations can be challenging, but it will help you make better long-term decisions.
What is best for your product?
Depending on your product, different models will serve you better than others.
For example, if you are manufacturing your own products, you may want to consider wholesaling or subscriptions to help cover production costs and break-even more quickly.
If you are a distributor of other people’s products, you’ll want to invest more heavily into direct marketing and strategies to grow your customer base.
What is your positioning?
You understand what makes your product better, but will consumers? Evaluate your competition and make sure it’s clear why your product is the best choice.
Are you competing on price? Selection? Convenience?
Your unique value should be clear from your back-end processes, warehousing, marketing and your website’s shopping experience.
The Final Word
In recent years, the ecommerce market has exploded in popularity and innovation.
For businesses looking to take the next step into the digital world, understanding what business models to use and how to leverage them can make the difference between a successful business and one you never hear about again.
With the help of BigCommerce, you won’t have to worry about the second option. Our solution is designed to help businesses build, innovate and grow — without hassle and with the help of industry experts.
Your commerce, without limits.
What is B2B2C ecommerce?
B2B2C translates to Business-to-Business-to-Consumer
It is a business model that combines B2B and B2C to create a complete transaction from the beginning of a product or service to the end, without an intermediary.
Can you have a B2B and B2C ecommerce store?
Yes, a hybrid ecommerce platform can meet the needs of B2B and B2C markets.
Many online brands are both B2B and B2C since you do not need a separate ecommerce site to sell the B2B model. Instead, you can optimize site engagement and SEO on a single URL and use customer groups to allow personalized browsing experiences for your B2B segment.
Can all business types create an ecommerce website?
Yes, all business types can create an ecommerce website made for online transactions.
No matter the business type — whether you’re a startup or a longtime commerce business — business owners should choose an ecommerce platform that fits their specific needs and wants for the site.
As technology grows to be a bigger part of today’s society, the amount of people benefiting from e-commerce is increasing. There has been an influx of online retailers over the years which indicates society’s acceptance of ecommerce. There is however, still a great amount of progress happening both in terms of the technology being developed as well as in terms of the market penetration and methods of employment. If you are thinking of completing your dissertation in an area of e-commerce, we have come up with some relevant topics to help stimulate your research. The dissertation topics have been split into a number of different key areas to give you a broad range of topics to choose from:
Contents
E-commerce has become an essential way for business to trade with the necessity and ability of an organisation to promote their service/ product. It has become one of the quickest growing technologies in the retail industry. Various strategies can be employed to the development of e-commerce, yet a gap is still presented in the technology which is used for ecommerce. One of the most important things in any business is the unique selling proposition. This is no different in e-commerce. The ability to identify the USP is the ability to install a productive and profitable e-commerce strategy. The platform alone (i.e. the Internet) may sometimes contribute to the USP, such as supermarkets allowing people to purchase goods online and provide delivery to their doors. It is also important that the consumer feels that they can shop at their leisure without the problems of going to a physical location. However, as the number of online retailers increases this may erode the USP that depends greatly on the platform. Possible e-commerce dissertation topics in this area are:
Marketing/Advertising for E-businesses and E-commerce Dissertation Topics
The establishment of a brand or organisation is a necessary feature in the development of e-commerce. This is done through the marketing and advertising mediums which are available to an organisation. Marketing or advertising for an e-business is a very important part of the overall strategy for e-businesses. There are many challenges to the development of the marketing and advertising to an organisation and it is necessary that the organisation is still visible to the consumer. The development of Internet marketing techniques such as paid advertisements for keyword searches, banner advertisements and also the use of Web 2.0 applications that make use of social networks for advertisements, have all changed the way marketing and advertising operates. Developing the platforms to better engage with the customers is important to the development of customer and brand loyalty through e-commerce which can be done through the creation of the promotional strategies which are available. The amount of information available today has made it possible to carefully target customers based on profiles, networks, etc. A good knowledge of the mechanisms of the technology is required in order to take full advantage of the opportunities available. In developing strategies through social media, it is appropriate to understand that this digital word of mouth version is extremely valuable to the organisation and costs nothing. The internet and social media also allows organisations to reach customers on a greater scale. Suggested topics for your e-commerce dissertation include:
Security and Trust Dissertation Topics
Security and trust are extremely important issues in e-commerce. One of the major perceived threats of e-commerce is the issue of security. Security and trust threats come from two areas in e-commerce – threat from third party attacks on legitimate transactions between a retailer and the customer and threat from fraudulent retailers to customers. It has become important for organisations and their online presence to identify the risks and threats to security in order to promote a safer security environment. Customers have become more aware of the issues involved in security particularly in the banking industry and on the development of secure networks to shop online.
Third party attacks Dissertation Topics
The threat of third party attacks is an ever-present one. Hackers may try to gain access to sensitive information stored in the web servers, such as credit card information, bank account details and even personal details for identity theft. This threat has become more prevalent with the introduction of new digital technologies. Retailers have a legal responsibility to keep any personal details they collect safe. Technology such as SSL, firewalls, intrusion detection etc. are all used to secure the website from unauthorised access. Third party attacks are also facilitated by lax security from customers. Some e-commerce dissertation topics in this area are:
- Critical evaluation of current technology enabling e-commerce security
- Analysis of previous attacks and vulnerabilities that led to those attacks
- Security vulnerabilities and possible attacks methods – firewalls
- Security vulnerabilities and possible attack methods – SSL
- The effectiveness of current intrusion detection technology
- Critical evaluation of security policies of a website
- Critical evaluation of the firewall policies of a website
- Perception of security among the lay public
- Encryption – State of the Art.
- How effective is today’s encryption to prevent spying/snooping?
- Customer confidence and how they perceived their data is being handled
- Security limitations and challenges in the online environment
- How much more can online retailers, banks etc do to provide more security to online transactions?
Trust in e-commerce Dissertation Topics
There is a great deal of benefits to e-commerce, yet there is still some hesitation from customers when it comes to using online shopping. Trust is an important issue in e-commerce, because unlike real world transactions, the retailer is not present in person during the transaction. Hesitation is apparent due to the lack of trust in the perception of the online environment. It is much easier for an entity to set up a website and an electronic payment processing system than a real-world storefront. It is also much more difficult for customers to determine the authenticity of websites. This makes it very difficult to trust that the retailers are who they claim to be. Online hacking has also become an issue for the online consumer as they fear that their personal information will be compromised. Some of the topics you could research for your e-commerce dissertation in this area are:
- Digital certificate, encryption and public key infrastructure weakness analysis
- Trust models in e-commerce
- Analysis of the effectiveness of trust-building mechanisms
- Analysis of public perceptions of trust
- Data privacy issues in e-commerce
- Data Protection Act 2002 – Implications for e-commerce
- Managing reputations online
- How important is trust in e-commerce and how it can be built up?
- Trust in e-commerce – Myth or Reality?
- The antivirus business
- The protection business – how effective is today’s antivirus software?
- Adware vs. spyware – where is the line drawn?
- Impact of trust on consumer behaviour
- Comparing tradition commerce to e-commerce and the understanding of trust for the consumer
- How can online retailers build trust in potential and existing customers using security and risk management strategies?
Legislation Dissertation Topics
Legislation has also been enacted in countries throughout the world in an effort to ensure that computer networks are safe from external threats and that any ‘attackers’ are brought to justice swiftly. By way of illustration, in the UK, legislation including the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Police and Justice Act 2006 has been enacted and implemented to help both prevent and punish computer security breaches. With this in mind, in view of the sheer breadth of this area of law, here are a number of dissertation topics that you may wish to consider in this area:
- The Computer Misuse Act 1990 – Scope, definition, reach and effectiveness.
- The Police and Justice Act 2006 – Scope, definition, reach and effectiveness.
- Legislation protecting computer security in the UK – Adequate or not fit for purpose?
- An examination of international legislation in protecting computer security.
- How effective has domestic and international legislation proved to be as a deterrent to computer attacks?
- What impact will the pending Brexit have upon the application of the law related to keeping computer networks safe from external threats and ensuring that any ‘attackers’ are brought to justice?
- How effectively has the law in this area kept up with the external threats to computer networks technological advancements?
- In view of the pending Brexit, what lessons can UK policy makers learn from countries’ legal systems outside the European Union, with a view to guaranteeing computer networks are kept safe from external threats?
Usability Dissertation Topics
- Critical analysis of current technology employed for e-commerce customer service.
- Potential Web 3.0 applications for customer service.
- Developing a new Web 3.0 application for customer service.
- Emerging semantic web applications in marketing.
- Effectiveness of principles of usability of e-commerce websites.
- Do W3C standards help promote usability?
- Analysis of any one major e-commerce website (such as Amazon) from the usability point of view.
- The monetary impact of low usability of retail e-commerce websites.
- Quantifying usability for e-commerce.
- Usability survey for one or more e-commerce website(s).
- Applying business processes refactoring to improving usability in on e-commerce websites.
- The role of usability in customer satisfaction with and commitment to a fashion retail website.
Mobile e-commerce Dissertation Topics
Mobile e-commerce, mobile commerce, or m-commerce is the next frontier in e-commerce. An increasingly networked and mobile world means that the Internet is no longer shackled to the desktop and a landline. It is now available in many mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. Savvy retailers have been quick on the uptake, providing content and delivery mechanisms more suited to the m-commerce platform. There are various opportunities for m-commerce, from profit-seeking through customers’ calls and texts to custom-designed applications for mobile platforms. Some m-commerce dissertation topics are:
Law and E-commerce Dissertation Topics
Governments in individual countries around the world have proved to be somewhat slow in practice to react to advancements in technology and, in particular, e-commerce. In brief, it is arguable that the laws in this area are generally proved to have been made at the behest of lobby groups that sit behind large profit-making organisations so that customers are then generally left to suffer. Some of the examples to have arisen in this regard include:
Some e-commerce dissertation topics that you may wish to consider finding out more about in this area are:
- The geographical boundaries of legislation affecting e-commerce.
- The impact of the DMCA on e-commerce.
- The impact of the Berne Convention on e-commerce.
- A review of UK legislation affecting e-commerce.
- Borderless crimes – can a computer crime be committed outside the jurisdiction of any country?
- Sealand – a digital utopia?
- Geographical boundaries – is a hacker safe in Sealand?
- Legislation P2P networks – killing a few legitimate businesses to save the majority of other businesses?
- P2P networks and e-commerce.
- Software patents – Repeatedly making money off the golden egg?
- Pornography and e-commerce.
- What impact will Brexit have upon the law related to e-commerce in the UK?
- What are the main lessons that policy makers in the UK can learn from other countries with a view to improving the law regarding e-commerce domestically?
- How can the most significant flaws to have been recognised with regard to UK laws related to e-commerce be most effectively redressed through new legislative enactments?
Data mining and E-Commerce
Data mining is another area which is likely to have a significant impact upon e-commerce. This is because it has come to be recognised that, since a huge amount of information is made available through digital systems, and that this information can be collated from various sources so as to then glean significantly more information than the individual would expect, customer privacy issues have come to the fore in recent years. With this in mind, legislation, including the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, has been aimed at protecting the interests of the lay citizen. Some e-commerce dissertation topics that you may wish to consider finding out more about in this area are:
- The Data Protection 1998 – Implications for e-commerce.
- The Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Implications for e-commerce.
- Data mining – Legal and Ethical Issues.
- Data mining technology – the next frontier.
- What impact is Brexit likely to have upon the law as it relates to data mining in the UK?
- How successful has the law regarding data mining in the UK proved to be to date?
- What lessons may be learned from other jurisdictions with regard to the development of the law as it relates to data mining in the UK?